7QTs - St. Nicholas, Slippers and Stockings

Linking up with Kelly for the usuals Friday run down...

---1---

Never leave liturgical wear within the grasp of a non-walking toddler:

A has a blast trying on Papa's hat - please don't ask me what the church term is for it. Papa is pretty, ehem, possessive of his hat and really doesn't like it when it is played with but I had to take a few pics before I rescued it

---2---

In some non-cute news...  I was walking down the unlit hallway last week to turn on the lights for people and I hear this crunch... Kind of like a Cheerio getting stepped on but I knew it couldn't be a Cheerio because I was too far from the kitchen so I popped on the hall light and was disgusted to find this:

Let's discuss how thankful I was that I was wearing slippers at the time

---3---

I probably could do a whole post about A's eating

But I won't bore you with it however the kid loves to cram as much food as possible in his mouth very very frequently 

---4---

I did that mid-Advent update earlier this week and left you hanging at St. Nicholas Day... This is how it shook out

The massive pile of stuff was swept away into the dormer (in my one single laundry basket - I have got to remedy that this weekend!) St. Nicholas takes down everyone's icon and leaves it with the goodies he brings. I get Mary because E and I kinda share...

There are gold coins scattered for the finding too

I was super tired the night before so I didn't get the chapel set until the morning and I was sure E or R was going to catch me but they held off and we gathered downstairs so everyone could check things out together

I love this picture of the chapel lit with candles. So quiet and peaceful and calm

Race to the top

St. Nicholas brought the kids their Christmas outfit, their favorite sugary cereal I don't buy, a few books and a coloring book. 

Even A could sense the excitement

I'd been meaning to get him raisins for a while since he loves raisin bran and he loves to eat bananas (those foods have counter acting effects) but St. Nicholas came through on the raisins and the kid was in dried-grape-heaven

M was excited about her Pinkalicious book

R did some serious gold coin collecting

Then we came down to cinnamon rolls

Which was well received by all

Everyone had seconds

Cutie!

Yep they were that good!

---5---

When dessert has been taken away, and free time before nap is no longer, how do you punish a child who won't stop screaming in the car?

Make them walk home, of course. R is my one who doesn't respond to my normal parenting tactics so I came up with walking home (in our neighborhood as I slowly ride in front of her). Practically, it cuts down on the noise level but also I think sometimes she just needs a breathe of fresh air. When we pulled into the driveway (after the neighbor gave me a strange look) she was a totally different kid - like all the drama and tears from the car were gone with the wind that she ran through on her quarter mile carefree run home. 

---6---

This time of year really gets me annoyed that I have a growing number of Christmas stockings that need my attention.

It seems like I've been working on this for FOREVER but really I haven't. 

This will be M's final product once the stitching and back stitching is done... I've still got a ton of work to do but I'm ready to be done with this because I've been hanging on to A's stocking since I saw it because I think it is a great boy stocking plus I want to do a 12 Days of Christmas stocking for me because I love the 12 days of Christmas!

---7---

I probably should have mentioned that St. Nicholas left me some pumpkin muffin mix since he knows how much I LOVE it but I really think my St. Nicholas gift was getting our Christmas card pics taken. Here's why. 

We loaded up and headed to Liturgy (for St. Nicholas) 45 minutes sooner than needed in order to change clothes and do all that picture stuff before anyone was at church. Last Sunday I noticed the super pretty poinsettias and knowing they aren't a dime a dozen - I floated the Christmas card idea to Lee because the kids had gotten their outfits that morning. 

It was a tough call because A. it was around dinner time B. we were about to go to church for 1.5 hours C. it was about the time A is usually melting down at home and ready for bedtime D. it was around dinner time

Anyhow, I'm so glad that we did do them. We got the picture knocked out without any tears and I didn't spend an arm and a leg on flowers. You'll have to tune in on December 25 for the card reveal. However, there is one Kibbe child missing from this year's card but rest assured come June we'll be seeing a lot of #5.